@ARTICLE {McIntire2004,
AUTHOR = {McIntire, E.J.B.},
TITLE = {Understanding natural disturbance boundary formation using spatial
data and path analysis},
JOURNAL = {Ecology},
YEAR = {2004},
VOLUME = {85},
PAGES = {1933-1943},
NUMBER = {7},
ABSTRACT = {Natural disturbance boundaries have fundamental influences on landscape
function; however, quantitative examination of the factors influencing
their formation has been limited. Boundary formation is the final
component of a disturbance event trio (initiation, propagation, and
cessation) and is least well understood. I examined the influences
of five stand-level variables (tree age, tree density, basal area
of susceptible trees, slope aspect, and slope angle) and space as
a surrogate for the unmeasurable factors on standardized tree mortality
(basal area dead/total basal area) using multiple causal path hypotheses
with data from seven wildfire and 11 mountain pine beetle (MPB) boundaries
in British Columbia, Canada. One hundred percent of fire sites and
91% of MPB sites showed strong support for a positive effect of the
basal area of susceptible trees (as defined by their propensity to
burn or to be attacked by MPB) on tree mortality (r = 0.21-0.81).
In addition, seven of 11 MPB boundaries had mortality patterns that
were affected only indirectly by the spatial location across the
boundary. This indirect effect of space suggests that other unmeasured
spatial factors were not responsible for the pattern of mortality.
Thus, MPB dispersal limitation did not appear to be an important
factor stopping the outbreaks at these seven sites. A population-based
approach would be insufficient for understanding the location of
the boundaries. On the other hand, mortality in all fire boundaries
was directly affected by the spatial location across the boundary.
In the context of multiple hypothesis testing of path models, this
indicates that there was an important influence of spatially varying
but unmodeled factors, such as weather and surface vegetation. Furthermore,
path models that included other factors explicitly examined in this
study (tree density, tree age, aspect, and slope) were rarely supported
by the data, suggesting little contribution to boundary formation.
These results demonstrate that the combined use of spatial plots,
path analysis, and a priori multiple hypotheses can give important
insight into the functioning of ecological processes.},
ISSN = {00129658 (ISSN)},
KEYWORDS = {AIC, Dendroctonus ponderosae, Landscape boundaries, Mountain pine
beetle, Multiple hypothesis testing, Path analysis, Space as surrogate,
Wildfire, boundary, disturbance, mortality, path analysis, pest outbreak,
spatial analysis, tree, wildfire, British Columbia, Canada, North
America, Coleoptera, Dendroctonus, Dendroctonus ponderosae, Pinus
mugo},
OWNER = {Luc},
TIMESTAMP = {2008.01.10},
URL = {http://www.scopus.com/scopus/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-4444378120&partnerID=40&rel=R7.0.0},
}